


Nobody But You

by xzombiexkittenx



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Depression, Distorted Thinking, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Internalized Homophobia, Other, Self-Loathing, Tentacle Sex, losers in love, mentions of being cheated on, mentions of child abuse, tagging for this fandom is wild
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 10:16:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16574567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xzombiexkittenx/pseuds/xzombiexkittenx
Summary: Eddie's pretty sure the symbiote could have a better host. Venom disagrees.Eddie’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer but even he can see the pattern. There’s one common denominator in all of those failed relationships, and it’s him. There’s something in him that others can see. He’s no good. Once someone is quit of him, their lives improve.





	Nobody But You

**Author's Note:**

> This story follows movie canon where Venom is also the name of the symbiote and not just the combined forces of the host and the symbiote. I use gender neutral pronouns for the symbiote. 
> 
> In the comics Eddie had an abusive dad and was a serious bodybuilder, and I’ve borrowed a little bit of that because Tom Hardy is jacked af under that sweaty hoodie. Also, Venom is literally venomous according to the Marvel wiki, so all the gross licking they do to their victims actually serves a purpose.

Eddie and Venom are about a month into their new partnership and things have more or less settled into a routine. They investigate for articles, they squabble over the remote control and whose turn it is to deal with the burned crap caked on the inside of the toaster oven, and sometimes they go out at night and eat bad people. It’s probably one of the best experiences Eddie has ever had cohabitating with anyone. Except maybe Anne. And look how that turned out.

Eddie tries not to think about Anne too much. She’s generously allowing him back into her life as tentative friends and he doesn’t want to fuck that up. He doesn’t want to wreck the good thing she has going on with Dan. Sure, Eddie’s still a little heartbroken, but he was the one to blow up their lives, screw her career, and then fail to apologize or take any responsibility at all until he ruined her date night with an alien health crisis, like an asshole.

Besides, now she has Dan who is a good guy. He’s a surgeon, he can cook, and he probably never falls into depressive funks where he forgets to shower and drinks too much. Also, he likes her abomination of a cat.

Dan is, very clearly, the better choice. No matter how it makes Eddie feel, Dan is objectively better. Eddie wants that for Anne. He wants to want that for her.

He gets kind of a sick feeling when he thinks about it too much. It’s the same sick feeling he gets when he thinks about his father. His father was an abusive dickhead who knocked Eddie around and spent a lot of time letting Eddie know how disappointed he was to have such a loser for a son. Eddie lost track of the asshole for a while, after he kicked Eddie out at sixteen, but he found out later that his father met someone and they had a kid. His father dotes on that kid. He’s good to his new wife.

It occurred to Eddie that maybe his father wasn’t the problem. Maybe, since he’s capable of being a good dad, and a good man, it _was_ Eddie’s fault. Once Eddie was out of the picture his father’s life really picked up.

Eddie’s been in nine serious relationships and six of them ended when the other person cheated on him. Five did it physically, one just emotionally until he finally dumped her and she confessed she was kind of relieved. All those people are now either married, or in long-term relationships.

Look, Eddie’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer but even he can see the pattern. There’s one common denominator in all of those failed relationships, and it’s him. There’s something in him that others can see. He’s no good. Once someone is quit of him, their lives improve.

Eddie’s about to settle in for the evening for a good old-fashioned pity party but then he remembers that Venom has to share his fucked-up brain. He doesn’t want his garbage brain chemistry ruining Venom’s day too so he does what he always does when he starts to dwell on what a piece of shit he is and can’t go out drinking and doesn’t have a case to distract himself with: he works out. He goes for the most punishing run he can think of, up the nastiest hills he can find, until he feels like he’s going to puke, lungs burning, legs wobbling, and then he keeps going.

**Eddie.**

Venom usually leaves him alone when he’s working out. Eddie lifts weights and Venom watches television or fiddles around on the laptop. But this is the first time that Eddie’s been out for a run with Venom on board.

**Eddie, we don’t feel good,** Venom says, right before Eddie heaves up the last gulp of water he just drank.

“It’s fine,” Eddie mutters into the collar of his hoodie. He wipes his mouth and turns for home.

**It’s not fine!** Venom takes control of their limbs and makes them stop. **What are you doing?**

“Humans do this,” Eddie hisses. “It’s called jogging, you know that, it’s good for us so let go!”

Venom does so with a reluctance that Eddie can feel.

“We’ll walk back,” Eddie says, compromising. “I’m sorry, buddy, but it is good for us. Makes us stronger.”

**It’s damaging your knees,** Venom mutters, **but we fixed them.**

Eddie doesn’t answer that. Now that he’s not running, the wind is freezing the sweat on his body and he really does feel sick. That’s what he gets for living off takeout and criminals.

Venom is strangely quiet when they get back to the apartment and Eddie sets into his weights, his father’s voice in the back of his mind. If he’d been stronger, smarter, less of a pussy maybe his father wouldn’t’ve needed a new family. 

If he’d been a better lover, a better listener, a better person maybe his past partners wouldn’t’ve left him too.

He’s never going to be someone like Dan, but he doesn’t have to be a piece of shit either.

When Eddie physically can’t do any more reps he drags himself into the shower and cranks the water as hot as the terrible plumbing will let him. It’s not great but fuck it, whatever.

The next day he and Venom do a bit more investigating for their current piece, interview a few sources, and eat a dozen raw eggs, shell and all. Venom’s still quiet and it’s starting to make Eddie paranoid. The bile glands at the hinge of his jaw ache.

When they get home, he decides he’s going to bite the bullet and, for the first time, be the better man.

“Hey, V,” he says, “can we talk?”

Venom materializes a little head from his shoulder so they can look at each other.

“You had a bunch of hosts before me, right?”

**“Yes. Seven. Then you. Then Anne. Then you again.”**

Eddie scrubs a hand over his stubble. It feels a bit like he’s gone past ‘devil-may-care scruff’ into ‘gross person who doesn’t take care of himself’ territory. “I know most of them were bad matches,” he says, pressing on because if he doesn’t do it now he’ll hold on until he ruins everything. “Can you tell—without going into someone—if they’ll be a good match?”

Venom weaves back and forth like a snake. **“Yes…”**

Eddie’s clenching his jaw so tightly his teeth ache. He forces himself to open his mouth and say, “I won’t be mad if you want to trade up. You know, someone better. Not Anne. I don’t think she wants—”

**“You don’t want us to leave. We’re Venom. We’re us. Perfect symbiosis.”**

Eddies guts cramp unhappily. “But you could that that with someone else. There are seven billion people on this planet, you could have anyone.” He’s not strong. He’s never been strong enough but he can do this. Just this one time. “Someone better. V, you said it, I’m a loser, I’m…Look, we both know what I am. I’ll help. I’ll help you find someone better. Someone worth what you can offer them. Not some—”

**“Don’t finish that,”** Venom snarls. **“We’ve been giving you ‘privacy’ and ‘personal space’ and you hurt the body, you fill the brain with loathing and shame and disgust. Enough!”**

Eddie cringes away. Of course. Venom feeds off hormones and chemicals and Eddie’s done nothing but pollute their shared space.

“I’m sorry,” he says, because if he learned anything from what he did to Anne, it’s that he needs to apologize more.

Venom makes a grating, almost mechanical noise. A wordless sound of frustration and anger.

**“We came for you. Saved the Earth together. Faced down Riot, and fire, and sound. We could have gone with Riot and had any host, as many as we wanted.”**

Eddie turns away. His face is hot like he’s going to cry and all he can hear is ‘fag, pussy, loser, fucking useless’ from his father, and ‘c’mon Eddie, you know what you’re like’ and ‘if you’d been around I wouldn’t’ve needed someone else’ and ‘you’ve been a mess for months what was I supposed to do.’

“I don’t need the greatest hits,” Eddie says. “I know you could’ve. I know what you gave up. But I know that I’m not really what you signed up for. There’s no shame in admitting you can do better. I won’t…I’ll be okay. You don’t have to feel obligated. You never promised me anything.”

Venom sighs, actually sighs out loud, and also in their head. They manifest out from under his skin to band around Eddie’s arms and chest and back like a bizarre hug. **“We should never have called you those names. We found them in your mind. We shouldn’t have said them.”**

Eddie tries to pull away but he can’t. He’s held. “Venom,” he says, desperate.

**“We could leave, yes, but we chose you. We choose you. Eddie is perfect. Even with imperfections. You’re all we want.”**

Eddie chokes out an unattractive sob but it doesn’t matter as Venom spreads out, covering his arms and legs, all through his organs, right down to his cells, through his body and mind until they’re one. There’s nothing in his head that Venom can’t see. All the things he’s been holding back and Venom hasn’t gone prying into. Every dark thought, every moment he hasn’t been good enough.

Venom holds on tightly, inside and out. **“Don’t make us go. Don’t tear us apart.”**

There’s only so much Eddie can stand against, only so much strength he can draw on. And he’s reached his absolute limit. He crumples inward, clutching at the black seeping out through his skin.

Venom pulls them up off the couch and takes them to their bed, pressing the body down, flowing over the skin until they’re like a weighted blanket but formed over Eddie’s limbs.

**“Eddie,”** Venom says, the strength of their voice rattling through Eddie’s bones. **“We should not have let you suffer. We’re here. Together. Always. We’re best together: strong, clever, tough, sweet, unstoppable, Eddie. No one, no other human could make us _us_. Not in seven billion could we find another like Eddie.” **

There’s a wretched, animal part of him that is desperate to protect itself. It gives him a second wind. Eddie tries to pull away, to pry Venom off. He fights, pushes and claws and shoves. 

“No,” he says. “No!”

Venom loosens their grip on him. **“‘No’ is important,”** Venom says. **“But you don’t…”**

“I’m nothing,” Eddie says. “You just don’t know any better, and I don’t want you to tell me these things and then leave me when you realize it. I can’t do that, V. Please don’t do that to me.”

Venom slams him back against the bed, externally, internally, every part of them taking control. Their head grows in size until it’s larger than Eddie’s and dripping drool onto his face.

**“That’s enough,”** Venom says. **“Listen. Pay attention. We love you, Eddie. We love us together. Perfect. Perfect symbiosis. Whole. No one else could give us this.”**

Eddie’s body shakes like a car out of alignment. He tries to speak but a tentacle forms and slips between his lips, completely misunderstanding how shushing works, but Eddie sucks gratefully.

**“We choose you, because it’s not a choice, it’s right to be together. We must be together.”**

And Eddie can’t talk around the tentacle in his mouth, but he doesn’t have to because Venom knows. They know his fears, and his weaknesses, and his flaws, and they still want him.

_Yes,_ Eddie thinks, as hard as he can. _Yes. Please love me, please choose me. Let me be enough._

Even his thoughts are cut off when Venom wraps around his thighs and pulls them open. **“Not enough,”** Venom says. **“More than. Everything.”**

Sex doesn’t mean much to species that doesn’t have it, but it means a lot to Eddie, and so it means a lot to Venom now too. Eddie can feel Venom’s desire to have every part of him, and this—human and strange—is theirs now. Together.

Venom strips Eddie naked, tendrils flowing down his shins, wrapping around him, even between his toes. They coil around his arms, Venom forming hands just so he can hold Eddie’s. Eddie is spread out, and held down, and held safe.

Tentacles wrap around Eddie’s dick, squeezing and relaxing until he’s hard and wet and aching.

Eddie moans around the tentacle in his mouth and closes his eyes, but Venom just projects what they’re seeing into Eddie’s thoughts. He watches himself squirm when Venom pushes a tentacle into his ass.

For a second, Eddie thinks, ‘fag, pussy’ but Venom says, **Not shameful, not bad. Look how good you are,** Venom says, in his head. **Letting us have this.**

And then there’s a second tentacle pushing into him alongside the first, stretching him wide, writhing against his prostate until he cries out around the tentacle in his mouth.

Venom pulls his legs up so he’s exposed and vulnerable. They cover him, protect him, fuck into him until he’s sobbing for it, wordlessly begging. 

**We want you so much,** Venom says. **We want us. Eddie, love.**

_Oh, yes,_ Eddie thinks. _Darling, please_

Venom licks at his lips where the tentacle is stretching his mouth wide and then the tentacle is withdrawing and Venom is kissing him. Or as much as you can kiss anything with a mouth full of razor teeth but then Venom’s face is shifting, changing to become less…lethal.

And it’s like back in the forest, before Eddie even knew Anne was the host inside Venom then. Venom still doesn’t have what might be termed lips, but it’s wet and good, and Venom’s saliva isn’t toxic to Eddie while they’re bonded so it just sort of tingles.

**We’re happy, Eddie,** Venom says and Eddie thinks he might actually die when he feels another tentacle nudging against his hole. **You’re so good to us, Eddie.**

The tentacles around his cock pulse just as the third one fucks into him and Eddie comes, holding on to Venom, Venom holding on to him.

Most of Venom just sinks back into his body, but they lower his legs gently, and kiss him until he stops shaking, still holding him down, holding him together.

“Thanks, V,” Eddie says, when he can talk outside his own head again.

**No more trying to separate us?** Venom says, suspiciously.

“Never, love,” Eddie says.

And maybe it’s fucked up that the one person he’s found who can deal with the mess that is Eddie Brock is an alien from outer space that mostly shit-talks him and keeps fucking up his Netflix algorithm with rom-coms and anime, but hey. That’s still one person. One person who chose Eddie, and will keep choosing Eddie.

Eddie curls up in their bed, arms full of the love of his life. 

**We’re not a person, Eddie,** Venom says. They pull the blanket up over Eddie’s body, tucking him in.

“Sure you are,” he says, already half asleep. “Don’t have to be human to be a person.”

**Good night, Eddie,** Venom says. 

“This is a post-coital nap,” Eddie insists. “I’ll get up again in a bit.”

**Sure you will,** Venom says, but fondly, so Eddie doesn’t argue.


End file.
